1. Introduction
AKCP Nominees 2 Pty Ltd (AKCP) is a wholly owned subsidiary of AKCP Holdings Pty Ltd 644 137 735 and was established on 10 June 2021. AKCP’s parent company, Arbor Knot Ltd, is based in Israel and subsidiaries are based in Canada, Germany, United Kingdom and the United States of America. AKCP operates as a purchaser of receivables and as a disruptive business in the receivables market with the aim of working on helping debtors achieve their financial goals when working with customers through customer-centric debt collection practices.
This document applies only to how AKCP handles credit information only and must be read together with AKCP’s Privacy Policy about how AKCP handles personal information under the Australian Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (Privacy Laws).
2. About this Policy
AKCP respects your privacy and is committed to ensuring that you understand how we manage any information we hold about you, including the way in which we collect, use, disclose and otherwise manage your personal and Credit Information (see section 5 for more information on types of Credit Information) that we collect or obtain through the provision of our services.
This Credit Reporting Policy (this Policy) outlines how AKCP manages your Credit Information and sets out how AKCP, its representatives and related body corporates manage your Credit Information under the authority of the Privacy (Credit Reporting) Code 2014 and Privacy Laws.
This Policy and ACKP’s Privacy Policy are available on our website at www.akcp.io.
3. Dedicated Credit Reporting Bodies
In the Table below, we outline the details of credit reporting bodies (or CRB(s)) that we may use to request from or disclose your Credit Information to. You can also use these details to obtain a copy of your credit report.
You should know that we reserve the right to elect and change, at any time in the future, the CRB(s) that we work with. If we do make any of these changes, we will let you know by posting the changes on our website notice board and amending the applicable sections under this Policy.
| Dedicated Credit Reporting Body Details | |
| Equifax | |
| Name | Equifax Pty Ltd |
| Phone | 13 83 32 |
| Website | https://www.equifax.com.au/contact |
| Experian | |
| Name | Experian Australia Pty Ltd |
| Phone | 1300 783 684 |
| [email protected] | |
| Website | https://www.experian.com.au/ |
| Illion | |
| Name | Illion Australia |
| Phone | 1300 734 806 |
| [email protected] | |
| Website | https://www.checkyourcredit.com.au |
4. What are Credit Reports?
Credit Reports are reports that are generated by CRB(s) using the credit-related information that lenders and credit providers report. Your Credit Report is used by creditors to do things such as evaluate any credit applications you make or confirm your identity. CRB(s) have established relationships with a range of CRBs and share the Credit Information that is reported with lenders and other service providers like phone companies.
It is important for you to know that there are privacy restrictions on the information that can be shared between us and CRB(s). There are also other limitations on how AKCP and its CRB(s) can use Credit Information that is acquired in credit reports.
5. Types of Credit Information the We Collect and Report
If we engage with you, we may collect the following types of Credit Information from you or request it from our dedicated CRB(s):
- identification information;
- consumer credit liability information;
- repayment history information;
- financial hardship information;
- a statement that an information request has been made in relation to the individual by either us, a credit provider, a mortgage insurer or a trade insurer;
- consumer credit or commercial credit and amount of credit sought in a credit application;
- default information;
- payment information;
- new arrangement information;
- court proceedings information;
- bankruptcy and insolvency information;
- publicly available information as to an individual’s credit worthiness (subject to exceptions); or
- opinions that the individual has committed a serious credit infringement in relation to consumer credit provided by AKCP or other credit entity,
The Credit Information above may include information related to your:
- assets;
- income details;
- expense details;
- asset and liability values;
- bank account;
- credit card details;
- transaction information;
- credit capacity;
- credit history;
- taxation information;
- financial solvency; and
- other financial-related information such as your credit applications, credit agreements and financial difficulty and hardship applications.
Collectively, section 6(a)-(y) is referred to as Credit Information.
6. How We Collect Credit Information
To increase transparency, we are committed to letting you know how we collect the types of Credit Information detailed in section 5. As such, we may collect your Credit Information in the following ways:
- when you apply for a product or service available to you in AKCP’s online customer account management system;
- from CRB when we have obtained your Credit Report or score with your consent; or
- we may also receive your Credit Information from another party and by any other means.
CRB(s) are authorised by law to handle your credit-related information. From time to time, we may share your Credit Information with or obtain it from our dedicated CRB. CRB are agencies that provide lenders and other credit agencies the ability to access the Credit Information they accumulate and hold for the purposes of assessing your creditworthiness. CRB may include credit-related information provided by AKCP in reports provided to other credit providers to assist other credit providers to assess your credit worthiness.
7. Purpose for Collecting Credit Information
To the extent as permitted by law, we may collect your Credit Information for the purposes of:
- to provide you with our Services;
- to assist you with debt management and administration;
- participating in the exchange of credit-related information with other credit providers including obtaining from and providing information to CRB and other credit providers and/or trade suppliers;
- to undertake debt recovery and enforcement activities, including in relation to guarantors, and to deal with serious credit infringements;
- to deal with complaints;
- meet our legal and regulatory requirements;
- comply with legislative or regulatory requirements in any jurisdiction for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims, whether in court proceedings or in an administrative or out-of-court procedure; and
- to assist other credit providers to do the same.
8. How We Use Credit Information
If we collect your Credit Information, we will use this information to confirm your identity, manage our relationship with you and collect overdue payments.
See our Privacy Policy for more information about how we use your credit and personal information.
9. Credit Reporting Under Financial Hardship Agreements
Unexpected changes in your personal or financial circumstances can make it difficult for you to meet your credit obligations. As a consequence, you may apply for Financial Hardship (Hardship) to amend your repayments under a Financial Hardship Agreement (Hardship Agreement). Hardship assists you in making repayments on your credit commitments when qualifying circumstances prevent you from paying them.
We may request your Credit Report from our dedicated CRB(s) to see if you are under any existing Hardship Agreement. Hardship circumstances are recorded on your Credit Report under your Repayment History Information (RHI) and we may share such information with our CRB. RHI also records if you have been meeting your Hardship commitments for the arrangements made under your Hardship Agreement.
We may share information about your Hardship, including the circumstances in which qualify you to receive Hardship, information about status of your Hardship Arrangement and details about whether Hardship repayment commitments are being met.
10. Electronic and Physical Storage Systems
We will store your Credit Information in either physical or electronic form. Some Credit Information may also be stored on secure servers, personal computers, mobile devices, and in secure manual record-keeping systems.
Much of the information we hold about you will be stored electronically. All electronic storage systems are secured stored and please refer to our Privacy Policy for further information and how we store and keep secure you data.
11. Rights Against Credit Reporting Bodies
You have personal and Credit Information under the Privacy Laws of Australia. See our Privacy Policy for more information about other rights that you have in relation to your personal information.
You have certain rights in respect of CRB(s) and the information they hold about you. Those rights include but is not limited to the following.
- You may be asked to participate in a “pre-screening”. This is where your Credit Information is provided to a CRB to provide marketing based on what you credit circumstances indicate. You have the right to contact the CRB and ask that you be excluded from this process.
- If you have been or have a reasonable belief that you are likely to be a victim of fraud, you can contact the CRB and request for ban-period”. The CRB will not be permitted to use your personal or Credit Information during this time.
12. You Right to Access and Correct Inaccurate Credit Information
By contacting us on our details in section 15, you can request access to or correction of the credit-related data we have on file about you. Prior to providing you with access to your credit-related information, we must first confirm your identity. Within a reasonable amount of time not longer than 30 days, we will respond to your request.
13. Making Different Types of Complaints
This Section 13 provides information about our complaints handling and dispute resolution procedures. It also provides details of the agencies responsible for different types of complaints.
13.1. How to make a complaint
We understand that handling complaints effectively can improve the quality of, and customers can be satisfied with, our products and services. We encourage you to tell us if you are dissatisfied with any aspect of your experience with us. We take all complaints seriously and ensure all responses to complaints are genuine and authentic.
To ensure the standard of effectiveness of resolution procedures, we aim to provide you with access to fair, timely and effective resolution procedures. This also ensures that our resolution procedures provide outcomes that you are satisfied with. In the Table below, we have provided the details that you can contact us on to report a complaint.
| AKCP’s Contact Details | ||
| Attn To | AKCP | |
| Address | 2 SHORT STREET | |
| DOUBLE BAY NSW 2028 | ||
| Complaints | [email protected] | |
| Enquiries | [email protected] | |
| Telephone | 0423 678 588 | |
| Website | https://arborknot.com | |
13.2. The timeframes that we will resolve your complaint within
Within 1 business day we will acknowledge the complaint in writing. We will then investigate the complaint and consult with third parties (if necessary). We will provide you with our decision within thirty (30) days from the date of your complaint.
13.3. Having your complaint externally and independently assessed
If you did not get the outcome you expected from our internal dispute resolution outcome, you may wish to refer your complaint to the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA). AFCA offers a free and independent dispute resolution service for the Australian banking, insurance and investment industries.
The Table below provides the details of AFCA which can be contacted to have complaints independently assessed. AKCP is a member of AFCA, Member number 84245.
| AFCA’s Contact Details | |
| Attn To | AFSA |
| Address | GPO BOX 3 |
| MELBOURNE VIC 3001 | |
| [email protected] | |
| Telephone | 1800 931 678 |
| Website | www.afca.org.au |
13.4. Making complaints to the CRB
If you have any complaints about your Credit Information held by the CRB you may contact them directly on the contact details outlined in section 3 and lodge a complaint directly with them.
14. Our Obligation to Report Data Breaches
We will notify you about a data breach that is likely to result in serious harm to you. We will not notify you where we have already taken appropriate remedial action that removes the risk of serious harm to you.
If we believe there has been a data breach that impacts your Credit Information and creates a likely risk of serious harm, we will notify you and the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner as soon as possible and keep in close contact with you about the nature of the breach, the steps we are taking and what you can do to reduce the impacts to your privacy.
If you believe that any Credit Information we hold about you has been impacted by a data breach, you can contact us using the contact details in section 15.
15. How to Contact Us
If you have any questions or queries regarding this Policy or need to get in contact with us please contact us on the details outlined below.
| AKCP Contact Details | |
| Attn To | AKCP |
| Address | 2 SHORT STREET |
| DOUBLE BAY NSW 2028 | |
| [email protected] | |
| Phone | 0424 678 588 |
| Website | https://arborknot.com |
16. Amending this Policy
This Policy is Version 1.0 dated February 2024.
Please be aware that we may change, make amendments or modify to this Policy, at our sole discretion, at some time in the future. All changes made will be effective immediately upon our posting of the update to this Policy on our website or notice board.
You should check this page occasionally to ensure you are happy with any changes to this Policy and download a copy for your records as we will not be holding this Policy as a record on our customers individual files.